March 4, 2025 • 54 mins
Crafting a life that balances business and family involves unique challenges and unexpected joys. We discuss navigating entrepreneurship while raising kids and share actionable strategies that stem from our personal journeys.
- Emotional moments and motivation behind starting a business
- Transitioning from stay-at-home parent to entrepreneur
- How business changes parent roles and family dynamics
- The importance of leveraging resources and support systems
- Identifying and establishing non-negotiables for family life
- Tackling mom guilt and embracing imperfection
- The significance of building a supportive network
- Strategies to maintain work-life balance
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💡 Lessons we’ve learned about balancing it all—sometimes successfully, sometimes… not.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
gosh, I'm gonna start crying.
I think, well, I didn't mean toget that emotional that early
on we are lit today.
Oh welcome, hey.
So uh welcome, you are livewith us and uh do epic shit.
The podcast, real talk, realestate, real life this is real
(00:24):
life, for sure.
My name is Colleen Baczynski.
I'm a real estate agent, realestate broker, entrepreneur, mom
, grandma and business woman,and this is my associate.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'm Kim Neal and I'm all of that, except for grandma.
No grandma, yet Awesome.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Well, you're pretty awesome and you.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
You're an investor too.
Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
So welcome to our second episode.
So in true transparency Ialmost said tampon, what the
heck In true transparency.
I have to start out by sayingthis is episode two, but this is
like take three episode two, itis take three.
Because we decided that we weregoing to undertake this on our
(01:09):
own, we're like, yeah, we needto record our next episode, we
need to be on time and have ourweeks drop.
You know, weekly on the rightday and time, and you know all
that perfectionist shit that Italked about, that I do all the
time, and so Kristen wasn'tavailable.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Or we didn't ask her, we just improvised.
I don't know what happened, whywe didn't have you here that
day.
It was an off week, busy.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So we recorded a really good episode, I think,
only To find out it didn'trecord.
Yeah, it didn't.
Yeah, I thought we did.
I thought I pressed the rightbuttons.
I didn't have any of the rightbuttons pressed.
I didn't have anything pluggedin where it needed to be to work
(01:51):
in progress.
Yeah, so we are two very middleaged women uh figuring out how
to do a podcast on our own.
So we appreciate that you'retaking the time to tune in and
be with us.
Um, so, big shout out toKristen DeFiore, who's um
handling all of our video andtechnical stuff on the back end
with us here like right now, andthen also to Nolan, who is our
editor and sound guy and helpedus with all of our equipment.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
He did a good job.
I mean, he was awesome, hereally did a good job.
You both did yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I mean.
So I like to give credit wherecredit's due, so I think that's
important.
So we are at week two, episodetwo, and let me just put my
glasses on so I can see what.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I'm talking about.
How did you think week one went?
I thought it was good, Ithought it was great.
I mean, we've had.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I mean for just.
We've had a lot of good,positive feedback, so I'm really
happy with it me too, I'm I'mexcited uh, we told some good
stories, we did yeah, we've gota lot more to share a lot to
share.
Drop some good nuggets.
What was your favorite nuggetwe dropped the last time?
I think, about just doing itlike, just go for it, do it yeah
(02:56):
, I hope we've encouraged someof you to just go out and take
the leap and and do the thingthat you intend to do.
I think I said that the lasttime.
Do the thing thing, takeadvantage of the opportunity, go
for it, just do it Never regretthe opportunities you took, if
you learned something or if youachieved something, and that's
the best thing.
It's like there's only two waysto go.
(03:16):
You're either gonna grow, you'regonna win or you're gonna learn
, and there's nothing wrong withany of those things.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, absolutely three well.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I think that's a perfect segue into what we're
going to talk about this week,which is how to start a business
while raising kids.
That's a good one.
So I've been thinking aboutthis a lot actually, and I
thought you know.
Here's me I'm super like,regimented and all about like we
got to stay on track and we gotto follow the agenda and Kim's
(03:45):
like yeah, whatever, we'll justtalk about whatever.
um, and I realized that the goldcomes from the real
authenticity of what we're doingand how the whatever.
So I'm going to try to notfollow my agenda too much today,
but I still want to give youguys actionable items.
We're going to share the good,the bad and the ugly.
(04:07):
So I won't say that you know,obviously we both have built
successful businesses severalsuccessful businesses over the
years while raising kids, and Iwon't say that we did everything
right.
We did a lot of stuff wrong.
So hopefully you can learn fromthe things that we did wrong
and laugh at them as well, andthen also learn from the things
(04:30):
we did right.
So, I'm going to share somethings we did right but also
like hey what did you do thatyou'd like?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
oh gosh, I don't do that again.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Like I can think of some things in hindsight.
So let's just start with thefirst question I have how did
starting a business change yourrole as a parent, Kim?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, for starters, I went from a stay-at-home mom to
jumping and feet first or headfirst or whatever you want to
call it, and dove into the deepend.
I did, I really did.
And I think, as I thought aboutthis a lot too, when you're a
stay-at-home mom, it is such animportant role, or stay-at-home
parent period, such an importantrole, and sometimes you feel
(05:13):
guilty pulling away from that.
So you know, I, while I was astay-at-home mom, I was like, oh
, I really want to be in theworkforce.
All my friends were on theworkforce, plus had families.
I was blessed enough at thatpoint to be able to stay home.
And I say blessed because not alot of people could do that
(05:36):
back then and they can't do itnow.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Oh, yeah, now I mean, there's no way.
There's very few families thatcan make it absolutely very few
so I was blessed at the time.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
But while I was in it I was like what do I want to do
?
I'm antsy, I want to go back towork, but is it worth?
I think you struggle, we allstruggle.
If I go back to work, how muchis daycare going to be?
Will I be present and around toattend you?
You know Valentine's Dayparties and birthday parties,
(06:07):
and your kids are only littleones.
Yeah, it goes by fast.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
It does Really fast.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
So for me I was what do I do?
What do I do?
Real estate was a great seguefor me to get into because my
husband was a carpenter and wewere starting to invest and
starting to flip and starting todo that.
So it was just normal ornatural for us to, just for me
(06:32):
to do that and help him.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, I think I come from the opposite end of that is
I didn't have a choice, like Ihad to work.
So I mean I shared a little bitabout this last week that I was
going through a real toughdivorce.
I had been in an abusiverelationship.
My ex-husband, who's nowdeceased, had addiction issues
and there was abuse, and it wasa situation where I had to get
(06:56):
out of the relationship, not formy, not just for my own benefit
or my own safety, but also Isaw this is not the example I
want for my kids.
Yeah, and um had to reallyquickly do that and gosh, I'm
gonna start crying, I think.
Wow.
I didn't that emotional, thatearly on.
I think that real estate for meprobably saved my life and
(07:21):
changed the trajectory for mykids forever.
Agree, nowed Now.
Did I always make the rightchoices as I was meandering
through that?
No, absolutely not.
I think there were plenty oftimes where I sacrificed time
with my kids or supervision withmy kids that I probably
shouldn't have.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I will agree with that, that I needed to be there
with them, I think businesswomen in general, do we have a?
That's difficult?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
But I also think that sometimes you just have to,
like you, you have to make.
I think that's the number onelesson probably is you have to
make tough choices and you haveto be willing to make sacrifices
if you're going to start abusiness and have kids and, um,
you know, I look at theinfluencers today on like TikTok
and Instagram and everything.
I thought what a greatopportunity for those people to
(08:04):
be able to be present with theirkids and still start a business
.
And yet not all of us can do aTikTok business or an influencer
.
But like there's only so muchof that to go around, I think I
mean.
Maybe I'm wrong, but real estatedid give me an opportunity and
maybe I could have scaled itback a little bit as I was
building and growing all thebusinesses to the point where I
could have scaled it back alittle bit as I was building and
(08:24):
growing all the businesses tothe point where I could have
been a little bit more present.
But I still feel like I got todo a lot of really cool things
with my kids over the years andwe got to have a lot of
experiences and opportunitiesthat maybe we wouldn't have if I
hadn't got into real estate andbuilt this business and built
the businesses now, when I wasbuilding other people's
companies.
I think that's where it whereit went sideways, maybe in terms
(08:47):
of the amount of time that Ispent helping other people grow
their business instead ofinvesting in mine.
And in hindsight, like we say,hindsight's 20, 20.
Right, so I look back like whenI was first building my real
estate career business, my salesbusiness and my own
entrepreneurial business.
I think I did a pretty good joband we'll talk about, like,
(09:09):
what resources we had and whatwe did of balancing both of
those.
I think for me, where it went alittle bit sideways is the
shiny, flashy objects of growingor climbing this corporate
ladder within this organizationI was a part of that just sucked
the life out of me.
It did suck the life you were.
(09:29):
I mean, I remember being in thatoffice till 2, 3 in the morning
, getting our numbers in on timeso that we could, you know,
look good in the corporate eyes.
And now that I'm back in thesales side of things and I'm not
affiliated with the corporate,I'm loving, loving it, we do
have fun.
So, yeah, so I think you knowand you won't go back and change
anything, because it made youwho you are and where you are
(09:51):
today.
I mean, are there some thingsthat I wish maybe went a little
bit differently overall?
But, like even you know,obviously I lost my daughter.
She's not here today and that'sa really, really, really hard
thing, right?
But I also know that her and Ihad some amazing trips together
and experiences together and youknow, we went places and we did
(10:13):
things together and I know thatthose things would not have
happened if I hadn't been my ownboss and hadn't been in this
business, been in real estateand had become an entrepreneur.
So sorry to get real heavy onyou guys fast, but I just think
that game, when you make thatdecision, there are some
sacrifices, but also it cancreate an open doors to amazing
(10:38):
opportunities.
Like you know, I have mygrandson.
Now I'm raising my grandson.
I would not have been able tohave the freedom of time to be
able to take on a little, alittle kid, all over again,
little boy, if I hadn't had beenmy own business owner and been
my own business person and uh,so, yeah, so it doesn't open up
doors.
Yeah, for sure, opens up doorsso what are a couple um
(11:00):
resources?
I would say that you leaned onearly on as you were jumping
into this real estate businessand being a mom and you know
it's when you have kids you'relike figuring, figuring it all
out um, you know, I think uh,family I had at that time I had
my sister was helping me alittle bit.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I had a Actually it was my neighbor's daughter, so
she was 15 years old and shewould come over and watch the
kids just for a couple hours.
And I think you have to be Ihad to be, anyway, very
purposeful with my time.
So if I knew I had showings orI had to get something done, I
(11:45):
knew I had that time slotbetween 4 and 7.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Like you, have to be very purposeful.
For me it was so.
I had the neighbor girl, I hadmy sister, because the kids were
still little, yeah, and then ofcourse you know my husband
would come home and do what hecould do, but he worked
construction all day.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
He was pretty tired, yeah, so I mean working
construction out in the heat.
Yeah, eight, ten hours you'rewiped Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So you know to count on him.
A lot wasn't.
Even though he was home, hemight be sleeping.
I still had the neighbor girlwith the kids you know so those
were some of the resources thatI was able to tap into and you
get real creative, and I wasthinking about this when we
talked about it before Iactually at that time was
(12:35):
helping a client that happenedto be friends with me, and after
I got done, after they boughttheir house and moved in, she
was like you know, Kim, youalways have Donovan.
She's like you know, you coulddrop them off, I'll watch them.
So that, too, became a resourcefor me.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Well, Donovan was a regular at our office.
I mean, I loved when he came inand you, you do that.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
And that brings me to another good point.
I would sometimes, if I didn'thave anybody, I would throw him
in the car with a happy meal andyou know, I think that I don't
even know what his hand held.
I mean, we've burned through somany.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Well, I know when he would come in.
He would run right to Bart'soffice.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Bart would jack him up on candy, Sugar and poppy
candy donuts.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Play with him, run him around the why was gave him
nicknames?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
yeah just able to do work.
Take a member with the vendingmachines, oh yeah, and they
would just hear what do you wanton then, just so I could get a
half hour 40 minutes of workdone, yeah yeah, I mean think
about it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
That was back before we could stick a tablet in front
of a kid or something and notthat you always want to do that
now, but like we do have theconvenience of that, like if I
have to take Julian with mesomewhere or if I have an
appointment, or back then it was, you know, pj.
So I remember that my youngestPJ was diagnosed on the autism
spectrum and so he, thereweren't a lot of options.
(14:00):
So, you know, I didn't havefame, my mom wasn't local, my
mom was out of state.
I had an aunt that would helpme, um, bart's mom.
You remember, I got into thisand Bart and I are just dating.
So this lady's the mom of myboyfriend, right?
But I mean, god bless her soul.
What a nice, sweet lady.
I mean tough as nails and meanas hell, but also a heart of
gold, right.
(14:20):
Like she had a mouth like atruck driver.
Bart always teases, that'swhere he learned to swear.
But she would, you know, shedidn't drive, she lived in the
city.
We'd go to the city and pickher up and she'd come over and
stay for a couple of days andthen she would help with the
kids and she whipped him intoshape.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Oh, she was a drill sergeant with those kids.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
And they absolutely adored her and then, obviously,
she became my mother-in-law whenwe got married.
But that was one of myresources.
I had another um realtor that Iworked with who, um, you know,
knew I was struggling, trying tofigure out how to, when, what
was I going to scheduleappointments, what I was doing?
And she offered her daughter.
She's like, oh, my daughter canbabysit and so like.
(15:00):
I think, uh, being creative andtaking stock of your resources
is really important to figureout what alternatives there are.
I remember taking PJ onshowings with me as well, and he
would walk in and he'd be likeoh, your couch can go right here
and you could put your tableover there, and the clients
liked that.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I was just going to stop and say so.
I feel like you.
When you do that andincorporate your kids and your
family, you become relatable.
You become a real person.
This is just a quick story here.
I was on the phone with anolder gentleman two days ago who
had called me.
I said, oh my God, I can't talkright now.
(15:39):
I just had a root canal.
He said, oh well, kim, I didn'tknow we were on that kind of
level.
But okay, call me when you feelbetter.
And I so I said great, but Ididn't do that for sympathy or
like, oh, I did it like, hey, Ican't talk right now.
I want to answer your call.
(16:02):
You're important to, but I justhad a root canal.
Can I call you back?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Well, and I think I appreciate that Like it shows
the work ethic and whatsomeone's trying to do to make
it.
Like I appreciate being able tosupport small businesses, like
if I see a business and I gointo like a little store in the
strip center and it's a littleboutique or a shop or whatever
(16:27):
and they've got their kidsbehind the counter sitting there
nicely playing with their toysor the Legos or whatever, like.
I respect that because thehustle is real.
The hustle is real.
Like you know, it takes work toget a small business off the
ground.
I think that's one of the mythsis out.
There's like oh, I'm gonna geta real estate, it's gonna be so
easier, I'm gonna start thisbusiness real estate, it's going
to be so easy.
Or I'm going to start thisbusiness, it's going to be so
easy.
Like you've got to put a lot ofhours in on the front end to
(16:48):
get things going off the ground.
So how to start a business whenyou have kids?
Be ready to haul them aroundwith you.
Like they're going to go withyou, but they're going to see it
because I think kids don't dowhat you say, they do what you
(17:08):
do and they are.
You are role modeling for themevery minute of every day in
your life, in what you do.
All right, and you know my kidsall work hard.
I appreciate them, I love themand you know they're watching us
, they watched us and nowthey're grown and doing it all
over again.
I feel I kind of feel lucky insome regards that I get to do it
all over again with Julie.
I mean I'm tired Don't get mewrong Like grandma's raising a
(17:29):
little guy.
Well, he's 10, 10 years oldtoday.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
That's why we have kids when we're young because we
can't deal.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
But I do appreciate the opportunity to have been
able to have learned from thefirst time around and say, oh,
I'm not going to do that againand I will say one of the things
that I learned is to givemyself grace.
And I would say for you guystoo, give yourself grace, don't
sweat all the small stuff.
like don't pressure, likethere's so many things you can
(17:57):
beat yourself up at and worryabout and freak out about and
just take a step back and take abreath and give yourself some
grace.
I think you're not gonna beable to be at all things all the
time and they'll be yourclients, the people you work
with.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
They understand, they get.
I think that was it's hard tolike.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
I really wanna do that and I wanna be 24, seven
and I wanna be, but you say that, kim, and I'm gonna call you
out right now for a minute,because you are one.
People don't see what you, whatI see behind the scenes because
you are hustling on the weekend.
We've been at companies beforewhere they're like oh, you can
(18:38):
build a business and you couldwork nine to five, and that's
bullshit total.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Bullshit.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
I call bullshit.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I call bullshit.
I called it when I would listento him and I would say who, and
though Right, because I feellike in our industry we work
when the norm is off.
If they're working 9 to 5Monday through Friday, I'm
working 5 tonight.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I see you every work weekend and not every weekend.
Like you take time off, likeyou go to the spa and you get it
.
I'm like where you got, likeI'm getting a massage, like you,
you, you take care of yourselftoo but I know that there's some
Saturdays where I talk to you,where you're out with five
different buyers.
You start at nine o'clock in themorning.
You have strolling in at seveno'clock at night sending boop,
(19:26):
sending me pictures of your.
Now in your pajamas I have thecovers with the TV, like I'm
pooped.
But I think at different stagesin your business you're going
to have to put in the hustle,like we're pushing really hard
for some big goals this yearbecause we want to get some
momentum and kind of be able tothen step back.
But like, even when you'refirst starting your business,
(19:48):
it's those hours and that effortthat you put in the beginning
that makes a difference.
Now I can remember fallingasleep with the computer on my
lap.
Now, if we go back to when Ifirst started, we didn't even
have laptops then I don't thinkI mean maybe they were invented,
I just didn't have one.
But MLS was on, like the hardcopy computers in the office and
you know there was only likethree disks for the office.
(20:08):
I mean, I started right afterthey got out of the books, at
least coming in with the booksgoing to hard yeah.
So we had them.
Yeah, those silly little discs.
And so I remember going back tothe office at night after I put
the kids to bed and saying, hey, bart, can you watch the kids?
I gotta go it.
He's like you're going to theoffice at 10 o'clock at night.
I'm like, well, yeah, I need tolook this up, I need to do this
(20:29):
, and so don't get me wrong,you'll have to put in the hours,
but the benefits and thefreedom and and the things that
you get out of it are so soworth it.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You bet I'm just laughing because there's, yeah,
there's some.
I mean, it is not for thefaint-hearted.
No, you have to have or learnto put on that coat or thick
shell.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Well, yeah, you definitely have to grow some
thick skin.
I think tenacity is important.
Resilience, but also keeping inmind to give yourself grace and
forgiveness.
So all those things what aboutmom guilt?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
talk about that.
Yeah, you know, you cannot nothave it, at least a little bit.
There are some I mean I missedprobably, I would even say,
because now that I'm, you know,head first again into you, know,
I kind of I mean COVID came, Ikind of dropped back a little
bit and now I'm full throttleagain and I would say in the
(21:27):
past year, two years, I've evenmissed family parties and you do
feel bad, you do have that momguilt.
You know there's a lot of timeslike this is just not even a
question for me in my house.
I have to have dinner, eventhough my sons are grown and my
one's a teenager you're like thecrock pot queen, aren't you?
I am.
(21:47):
That's what I did today.
I was telling Kristen I walk, Ipulled out my can opener.
I was telling Kristen, I pulledout my can opener, I was making
homemade spaghetti sauce,getting it all ready and dropped
it.
And I could have just shut itoff, put it in the fridge and
said I'll do it tomorrow.
But I'm like nope, the kidscome home from work, Whatever,
Everybody's hungry and thatcomes from a long period of time
(22:12):
where I didn't have dinner andfelt guilty and felt bad.
You know, these guys I mean Ihave all boys, I have three boys
.
They're hungry, they want Boyscan eat.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
They can eat Kristen you know your boys yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
For me it's a no-brainer.
I have to have dinner.
So I literally dropped it,broke can opener and was at
Target at 8.45 this morning tobuy a can opener to come home to
make sure dinner was done.
Am I always there?
Speaker 1 (22:39):
No, Well, I think, though, that you bring up a
point of you know knowing whatyour non-negotiables are, right.
So for me, my non-negotiables,so dinner is not, I don't know.
For me it's not as big of adeal.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
But you don't have all the boys at home.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
They're not home now, but even when they were.
Every single one of my kids arephenomenal cooks, phenomenal
and I think it's because theylearn.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah, now, it's not that I don't.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I'm a good cook, like I can cook really well.
Yeah, you are.
I can cook and bake, which somepeople have one or the other.
I can do both.
I can and bake.
I'm a phenomenal cook.
Bart will attest to that.
He says it's how he put on somuch weight, but you know that's
a topic for another day.
But all my kids know how tocook really, really well, like
at school.
(23:23):
My Kyle when he was at lawschool he had two girls that
were roommates that they, youknow it was like three's company
.
They didn't cook, he cooked, hecooked for all of them.
I mean he makes homemadesouffle and cheesecakes For my
birthday he made me homemadeeggs benedict.
(23:43):
He knows how to make hollandaisesauce.
He's good.
So for me it was a little bitdifferent.
But my non-negotiable,particularly right now, is
soccer for Julia.
That's a non-negotiable.
Particularly right now issoccer for Julia like that's a
non-negotiable.
Every Monday and Wednesdaynight we have soccer practice
and Wednesday night is a longass night because I go, I work
all day.
I'm home for him from afterschool.
(24:05):
We have to have a snack, gethim dressed, get him ready.
It's 30 minutes to get to thesoccer um, because it's indoor
right now, because winter inChicago, so it's 30 minutes to
get to the soccer field.
He has goalkeeper, not goaliepractice, I learned because
goalie is hockey goalkeeper issoccer, I'm just learning this
stuff, even though Alyssa playedsoccer, I didn't know it, and
she was a goalkeeper too, butanyway.
(24:25):
So he has goalkeeper practicefor an hour.
Then he has an hour break but wecan't drive home and go back
because it's 30 minutes thereand 30 minutes back.
There's no point.
So then we sit there for anhour, then he goes into regular
team practice and then anotherhalf hour to get home.
So we're there four hours.
It's a big long night so for meno one else is going to.
You know, you can ask someone torun your kid here or run your
kid there, but no one else isgoing to do that do, and I I
(24:52):
asked bart to do it once, but Iknow bart doesn't have the
patience that I do either, soand he didn't he's not going to
sit there and flip open acomputer and I'm working and
sending emails to clients.
I'm fortunate that the facilityhas like a lounge where there's
wi-fi.
If they didn't, I'd be usingthe wi-fi in my car or whatever.
Um, but you know, those are mynon-negotiables, and so I I
(25:12):
think for you, dinner is anon-negotiable.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
It is so.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I think, as a parent mom, if we're speaking to the
women, but parents, if we'respeaking to decide what your
non-negotiables are and thenbuild around that and know that
you're going to have to makesome sacrifices, give and take,
like everything, can't be anon-negotiable.
Pick and choose what they are.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Now that you're saying that, I wish I would have
done that.
I can do that now because I'm10, 15 years into the business.
If somebody would have told methat early on, maybe things
would have been so chaotic in mylife, because they became very
chaotic, I mean even down to myrelationship with my husband,
yeah, you know.
(25:50):
So that's a really good topicthat we're talking about.
A really good, you know thingto touch on is non-negotiables.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah, so I just think that choosing what they are is
important and then givingyourself grace around all the
other things, Like we miss a lotof school events and no offense
to the school, but some ofthose school after school.
Like we did the trunk or treatthis past year.
It was crazy.
I'm like we went through allthat hassle for this.
It was a complete chaos,nightmare, and he didn't even
(26:18):
have that much fun.
He liked the one at the churchway better.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
We used to go to the church, one every year.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And I'm not trying to knock the school or anything.
I know they do their best inthe resources and the limits
that they have.
But I'm saying like so justbecause, like all the other kids
are going to it when we went toit last year and it's done a
couple of the after school, likeevening things there's just too
many kids running around andthere's not enough games for,
like the field night or whatever.
I'd rather take him tosomething else that he's going
to enjoy more.
So like give and take, likelearning what ones are good and
(26:47):
what are not, and dinner is agreat one.
Like dinner is a great one,like if it's family dinner then
it's family dinner.
But also knowing like I won'tmiss soccer, so Saturday morning
soccer games, I can't do openhouse on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I've got to give up.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Sunday, If you're not doing open house and I know
there's plenty of people who say, oh, I don't do open houses,
they don't work.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
I don't Bullshit.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Absolutely, I'm calling bullshit.
Because I mean Katie and I didan open house this week and we
had 75 people through.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Me and Kristen did one Saturday, which you have
like 40, 50?
, yeah, 45 people, yep, and atleast three listing
opportunities.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
And didn't you get multiple offers on the property?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
We did.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, katie, she got four offers.
So it works if it's done theright way, and so it's an
integral part of our businessfor our clients.
And if you're not willing toprovide the integral part of
what it takes to service thatclient, then maybe you're not in
the right business and I evendid my own email blast.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I'm proud of you.
You know it's funny.
You pulled it up on the board.
It goes, kim, you're number two.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
You can set the set, oh yeah we have the leaderboard
of all the activities we do andI thought oh yeah, because.
I sent out my own email blast.
Well, I mean, but that's whatit takes like doing the things
it takes.
So when you're starting yourown business, whatever kind of
business it is, know that thereare certain non-negotiables on
the business side, not just thepersonal side.
(28:09):
Like we're talking about dinnerand soccer, which are, um,
personal non-negotiables, butthere are some non-negotiables
on the business side.
And like my husband doesn'tlike to give up sundays, I watch
football on sundays.
I'm like, well, guess what?
I'm not watching football onsundays because we have a
commitment to our clients andthis is what it takes to get
(28:30):
things done.
And so what are yournon-negotiables on the business
side?
I think is just important andmaybe writing all those down and
laying it out in a plan infront of you so that you can see
it when you're starting intothis business like here are the
non-negotiables here.
Here are the non-negotiablesthere, and then everything else.
I'm gonna plan it, but I'm alsogonna give myself some grace
around all of it.
(28:50):
I agree that's a good it was,and I'm totally not following my
notes and going off the cuff,so I'm like a little nervous,
you guys.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Okay, so being transparent, right, so Kim's the
like, kind of like just I'm sofly by the seat of my pants and
I'm so like, structured.
I think that's why we do welltogether.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yeah, we feed off of each other pretty well, but I'm
trying to loosen up a little bit, so you are, you're doing well
today.
Thank you, you are thank you sowe talked about mom guilt,
talked about taking stock ofresources.
A couple other resources Iwanted to mention real quick
that I had thought of is thinkof, like some unconventional or
non-traditional resourcesbesides just either bringing
(29:30):
kids with you or having someonewatch the kids.
I think there's some time hackstoo, so for me, I wanted to
share this one.
I'm sure everybody knows theyuse Instacart or grocery order,
but that has been a godsend forme in terms of time saver and I
know we talk about inflation andprices of groceries being high
(29:52):
and you don't want to useInstacart to inflate them up,
but hack pro tip.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Dual.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Asco has their own app where you can order out
there and they'll deliver, oryou can drive up and pick it up
and you get all the sale prices.
You do.
I just did it.
It's great that's sweet, savesme hours every week hours.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I had another lady who was just we were two weeks
ago.
She's in the corporate worldand she said she hasn't been in
a grocery store in four years.
She just does it.
Orders that.
She said my time is spentbetter doing other, you know.
I'm not that grocery shoppingisn't important.
I don't want to, you know,minimize that.
But she said it's easier forher to go on the app order it,
(30:33):
she pulls right into the parkingspace.
I've got less um crap and lesslike that is true stuff too,
when I do it on the app, becauseI can go in the refrigerator
open up oh, I already have fourcontainers of sour cream.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I don't need a fifth one just because I'm in the
store.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
That's true, you know what that is true so for me
it's you know and not buying.
You know everybody's washingtheir weight, everybody's.
I mean.
You're on the grocery store.
I'm like, oh, some new mintoreo cookies, I'll try them you
know you laugh about the mint.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
We always have mint oreos.
I put them in.
Uh.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Julian's lunch but you are less likely to buy, less
impulse buying.
Yeah, less impulse buying soyou get a double benefit from it
.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
But I think looking for ways to leverage yourself in
that, because in the beginning,when you're first starting this
business, people say, oh, I'mgoing to get into real estate
because I'm going to havefreedom of time.
No, you're going to have to puttwice as much time to get it
going.
We talked about that last weekwhen we talked about going on to
our first sale.
Yeah, I work a lot.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
You work a lot, we work a lot.
Most real estate agents.
Look at my buddy, who Iabsolutely love.
Who's my guy from the loop?
Speaker 1 (31:46):
He's a maniac.
Now.
He wears his lack of days offlike a badge of honor, and I
respect him for that.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
That will never be me his lack of days off like a
badge of honor and I respect himfor that.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
That will never be me .
Well, I'm going to be abalanced person, and I you know.
So we'll set.
I'll sell 50 homes this yearinstead of 300 like him, which
is fine, but that's important,because no one can tell me what
my goals are going to be for meeither and I think and and I
might get some slack for thisit's a little different between
a man and a woman when you havea family.
(32:16):
I would agree.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I I used to argue with someone in particular at a
different company that would sayno, it doesn't, no, it doesn't,
no, it doesn't.
Yes, it does, because you'rehere from 7 in the morning until
3 30 in the afternoon.
But who got the kids up?
Who got their lunch packed?
Who got their clothes right?
(32:37):
Not there that there aren'tabsolutely that, absolutely at
large.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Normally, yes, the wife it just kind of naturally
gravitates to a lot of naturalinstinct it's nurtured inside of
us absolutely um, so for me Iwell, I used to argue about that
too, when I would hire people,when I had my different offices
and I had my different companies, and they would say well, the
person that you hire needs to behere at this time and do this
(33:03):
at this time, and we had to havea stand-up meeting at 8 am and
I said, well, they don't gettheir kids on the bus until 8.45
.
So we're going to have ourstand-up meeting at 9 15,
perfect like you can't do it at9 15, I'm like, why not if we're
truly supporting family firstand then business as a company
and as a business owner, and awoman business owner, yeah, I'm
gonna role model that in thepeople that I have working for
(33:24):
me and how I set up expectationsfor them.
But also, you know, you do thatwith your clients, right?
You're like okay, well, I, Ican start showing that this time
, and not that you wouldn't makea one-off exception, like
there's plenty of times wherewe've gone to like a class in
the city where we had to get inand you know, I can ask someone
to do it one day, but theday-to-day plus I want to be
(33:45):
there I want to give up and givehim a kiss on the head before I
send him out the door to get onthe bus and make sure that he
has his water bottle and hismint oreos and his snack and all
those things shoes and his yeah, absolutely, I do too, yeah so
I think I would agree with youso I think,
Speaker 2 (34:01):
those things are important, so but I think when
doing that with your clients andstuff or your business, any
business it's okay to start at 915.
It's okay to start at 9.15.
It's okay to start at 10o'clock, it's okay.
The clients and people, theydon't need to know exactly
what's going on in your schedule.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Well, also, most people aren't showing property
at 8 o'clock in the morning.
You know most sellers don'twant people walking through
their home at 8 o'clock in themorning.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
How about 9?
9 o'clock on a Saturday morning, okay?
Speaker 1 (34:31):
I mean I have an appointment this Sunday at 9.
Because?
I had to squeeze it in beforethe open house at noon.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I mean but that's what we do, so I'm going to have
a full day.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Sunday, like I was showing last Sunday too.
I had, because Saturday wassoccer.
We had soccer game Saturday, sothat was my non-negotiable.
So Sunday at showings at 9,open houses at noon, and when
open house starts at noon thatdoesn't mean I get there at noon
.
There's an hour and a half ofprep leading up to that because
we put 45 signs out like we'redoing a lot, like knowing what
your non-negotiables are, sothat window of opportunity there
(35:00):
, or a window of time is set.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
So I think and mostly with our open house.
You're there, so we end atthree.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
We're there till three, three, four, everything
down yeah, five signs and pullthem out of the snow and the ice
takes a little time.
I had a drill.
I bought a drill.
Things we do to get creativebut, again.
That's like being committed todoing what it takes in your
business.
So you brought up a.
You made me think of something.
So we're talking about likeyeah, you don't have to start
(35:28):
till nine or ten, but I think onthe flip side, it's also
important that when you'restarting this business, that you
understand that it takes timeto start a business more time
than to maintain a business likethe startup.
Every time I've started an offlike when we open a new office
because they own multipleoffices, or when I started my
wheels, like the time you put inis twice as much in the
(35:48):
beginning until you get it upoff the ground.
It's kind of like you know whenan airplane is taken off, it's
got like the thrusters andyou've got to give that, that
thrust to get it up off theground.
It's kind of like you know whenan airplane is taken off, it's
got to like the thrusters andyou've got to give that thrust
to get it off the ground.
The business is the same way andI think so many times I see new
agents that walk in andliterally have coached and
trained thousands of agents,right and leaders and whatever.
They walk in and they're like,oh, and then I see them say they
(36:10):
want one thing and then I seethem say they want one thing and
then the time that they'reactually putting in, and I don't
care if that time starts atnine o'clock in the morning,
seven o'clock in the morning orif it starts at ten o'clock in
the morning, but you're workinguntil eight o'clock at night
like the hours to me don'tmatter, like when they are.
It's if you're putting in thehours, because I see so many
people say I want to make sixfigures, I want to make a
(36:31):
hundred thousand dollars in realestate.
A hundred thousand dollars isnot that much in real estate.
To be honest with you guys likeyou should you could do that.
I don't want to say shouldbecause I don't want to be
preaching you could, absolutelyyou could do that easily and
then some, but not if you'reworking five or six hours a week
.
Show me any job in the world Imean, I'm sure there are some,
but the percentage is very, verysmall of where you can make six
(36:54):
figures and only work five orsix hours a week.
So you're gonna have to put thehours in it's when you put the
hours in, it's the creativitybehind it.
I think that it gives you thefreedom you have freedom of time
, not freedom of work.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
You don't get to not do the work yeah, I would say
because I'm just thinking like I, there's so many misconceptions
about real estate like, oh, youget to make your own schedule,
just like you said I.
You know, I only have to workfour or five hours.
I don't have to, you know, dothe things that are hard.
I mean it is people, I meanforever.
(37:28):
I didn't tell anybody the firstcouple years I was in real
estate what I was doing, becausethen people are watching and
they don't, you know, they don'tsee the struggle behind there
that you're on the phones,you're doing things that you
normally, you know don't have todo at a nine-to-five job.
I remember, I mean you got thephone call.
(37:49):
I was in an apartment complexhanding out flyers and the
apartment manager got mad andcalled my office.
So well, what the hell is shedoing?
Speaker 1 (37:57):
trying to take, you know she's trying to take our
business for her own businesswell, and I think that's the
thing with for your when you'restarting your own business, you
need to go out and find clientstoo right sometimes it's like,
oh, I'm just going to start thisbusiness and people will come.
If you like, if you build it,they will come no, no that's not
how it works.
You got to have a plan on how,first of all, taking stock of
(38:18):
your resources what are yougoing to do, how you're going to
have the time.
But then you have to have aplan, a good, solid business
plan.
What's that plan look like?
And not just how much you wantto do, but drilling it down to
how much you're going to do, how, where that business is going
to come from where those leadsare going to come from how are
you going to?
find the customers or theclients and then executing on
all of those things.
(38:38):
So you know, we talked, we'vetalked about open houses a lot
today, just because it justhappens to be something we're
talking about.
But you know the consumer sees,oh they held an open house for
three hours and they sold thehouse.
No, it doesn't work that way.
Like there's probably about 10to 12 hours of pre-work that
goes in before we host that, andprobably another 15 to 30 hours
(39:01):
of follow-up and post work withthose people before and then
now we're just getting to thepoint of writing a contract and,
you know, keeping the contracttogether and negotiating the
deal and then inspection andthen walkthrough and like all
the little things that happen.
So there's a lot of hours andI'm not complaining.
Real estate has been abeautiful, wonderful career for
(39:23):
me.
I just want people that arethinking about getting into it
or starting it whether it's thisbusiness or something else to
know that they have realisticexpectations and what's going to
be required of them in order toget into this.
And you can't do both be a goodmom and wife and raise a family
and have this.
It's just setting thoserealistic expectations up front,
(39:45):
setting your non-negotiables.
Give yourself grace when noneof them, when stuff happens,
because I, god knows, I fell onmy face a lot.
There were times where I maybeI should have been there for my
kids and I wasn't.
And there were clients that youknow.
I'm sorry that.
You know I screwed up on.
Like it happens it does.
I hope it happens less and lessnow because I have so much
(40:08):
experience behind me, but in thebeginning I probably did mess
some shit up Me too.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
I for sure did.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
No doubt I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Well, that's what I mean.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
I've learned to give myself grace, I've learned.
I think it is all a learningcurve.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah, I think in the beginning we beat ourselves up a
lot and I think as I get older,one of the things I've learned
is not to sweat the small stuffas much.
Which is hard for someone likeme who's such a perfectionist.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Well, and too, don't you think, as you're going
through and I think it's withany business you learn to deal
with what's being thrown at youa little bit better?
Like I can deal with a lot more?
Well, you see, like Kim, how doyou not just blow up?
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Because I think Well, you definitely have more
patience.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
When it comes to that talking to clients, I'm like
why don't they get it?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Yeah, like I feel like I'm at a point where I'm
like it's okay, we'll handle it.
We got it.
Yeah, don't worry about it.
And that goes along with thegive yourself grace, um, and
getting back to that, it's.
My point was, I feel like thethe more you do it, the more
experience you get, the more youare able to tolerate and work
(41:22):
through, and do I?
Speaker 1 (41:23):
I would agree with you.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yeah, there's um.
I see agents not even our own,like you know that.
Oh my god, oh my god.
It's like oh wait, no, no,breathe.
Yeah, we, we got this, we cando this.
Let's walk through this.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Well, I think life has given me more tolerance and
patience in that, just becauseof, like I mentioned, my
youngest son's on the autismspectrum and the things, like, I
think I learned a lot ofpatience over the years just
from helping raise, raising himand he's phenomenal now.
But I mean there were timeswhere, like, the school called
and they'd cart him off in anambulance and, like you, you had
(41:58):
to like just say sorry, clients, I'm missing the appointment,
like I don't want to tell you Isomeone else will help you.
Well, I think that's anotheractually good point in terms of
when you're starting yourbusiness is how important is the
circle, or the tribe that yousurround yourself with?
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
We've got a little bit of time.
I love this one.
Yeah, it's honestly, and thisis no lie, it is absolutely 100%
whether it will make or breakyou.
100%, whether it will make orbreak you.
I've been, you know, with acore group of people since I
started, you know, and then youfall off and your business kind
of goes along with that, andthen you come back together and
(42:35):
then you fall off and really I'mat a point in my career now it
is absolutely 100% who Isurround myself.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Well, I mean, they always say that you tend to take
on the characteristics or riseto the level of the five people
that you surround yourself withthe most.
But I also think that's notjust from a financial
perspective.
I think that's from anintegrity perspective, I think
it's from a kindness perspective, I think it's from a trust a
trust.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Yeah, that's trust.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
And I know and I love the like.
It took a long time because Iused to give everybody the
benefit of the doubt.
I know you're smiling right andI've gotten burned more times
than I'd like to admit Where's.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Ubaldo.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
Where's Bart I was going to?
Yeah, so they're very skeptical, whereas I'm very trusting and
I feel like I've led a lot ofpeople into my circle previously
that maybe I shouldn't havetrusted and that, you know, stab
me in the back.
I'm just going to say it.
You know, I got burned a fewtimes, more than a few times, by
people that I really treatedlike family, like you know, when
(43:40):
you're in the circle with usyou're in the circle.
Like you get it all.
I mean, you're gonna, you'reprobably gonna hear some things
you don't want to hear, like tmi, a lot, right, too much
information.
But we also, you know, wouldlay down for each other and do
anything for each other.
So, like, and so I know that,like, if I have a client and I
can't make it somewhere and I'mlike, oh my gosh, I can't do
(44:02):
this, I could call any one ofthe people in our group, our
surrounded group, and they'll goand help me out.
And not because, like, they'regonna get paid or I'm gonna have
to give them half mytransaction or whatever.
Just now, if they do a lot ofwork, I'm gonna do what's right
and what's fair.
And, like you know what,kristen, you did all that work
with that client.
You know, here I'm gonna splitit with her, I'm gonna pay you a
referral or whatever.
(44:22):
But also in a pinch, like ifyou're out of town or whatever,
like hey, this person needs togo out, can you go?
Show them one house, absolutely, corey will run and do it, or
whoever.
So I think that that circle ofpeople that you surround
yourself with when your computerfreaks out and you're like you
pulled up right like a virusattacked me.
What did you click on?
I didn't click on anything.
(44:42):
I swear no right but thosepeople that you surround
yourself with, are they peoplethat you want to be in business
with?
And I think I've learned thatthe hard way and you have as
well.
I mean you bounced around to acouple different places because
you know we had the bandtogether and then the band broke
up and then we had part of theband back together because other
people we didn't want back inthe band.
(45:03):
And so I think those areimportant things too.
So, just to recap some of thethings that we talked about
taking stock of your resources,who you have for help,
non-traditional ways ofleveraging or outsourcing,
giving yourself grace, settingyour non-negotiables up and
knowing who you have in yourcircle For sure I think those
(45:23):
are all really really good ones.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
They are so if you could go back and do it all over
again, knowing what you wouldknow now, what's one thing that
you would make sure to get right, or tell your younger self, or
whatever honestly the circle issuper important to me because if
you have that core circle orthat, they have a tendency to
tell you well, they're notafraid to call you out, and
(45:47):
you're right either and like kim, you need to go home.
Yeah, go home.
You know, or you're not doingthat right, or I will help you.
Or like they will tell you it'sa trust thing.
Like who do I trust to that?
Speaker 1 (46:03):
that would tell me the truth well, I mean, I had
that conversation with somebodyin our circle the other day.
I'm like hey, I'm telling youthis because I care about you
what's wrong with you?
You're not yourself.
Something's off, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
I'm, what are you?
Speaker 1 (46:14):
gonna do to get your ass not in gear?
Speaker 2 (46:17):
or go home and they that that person.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
I'm gonna call anybody out by name.
They texted me later.
It was like thank you for that.
I appreciate I needed that nowif we weren't in that group that
you know that environmenttogether, somebody else might
not say anything and then youknow six months from now that
person's out of the business andthey're struggling and their
life's falling apart.
You wonder why, like we need tobe, but also I built enough
(46:39):
deposits in trust with thatperson that I'm allowed to have
that conversation like you know.
You know you could say oh, youhave a coach and they'll help
you do that.
But you know I'm not listeningto someone who I don't think or
I don't believe cares aboutwhat's truly important to me,
like I, and having a coach isimportant and great I coached
for years and but that coach hasto build trust and build
(47:00):
deposits of trust with you thatyou know that they truly care
about you in order to be able tosay those things to you.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
It's a great point because you can hire 15 coaches
and you can say this I'm goingto start this coaching business
or I want to be a coach.
But if you don't have thevalidity behind, if you don't
have trust behind, if youhaven't proven, it means nothing
, zilch, it means nothing.
I mean there was a company Iwas, I was at and they wanted me
(47:32):
to listen to somebody who wasonly in the business a few years
.
What?
Maybe I should be the coach?
But no, I think you have thatvalidity behind.
You have to have proof behindit.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
Well, I'm glad that you bring that up, because
that's probably one more finalthing about when you're starting
this business.
When I think about what I, whatwe did to become successful
both of us and we didn't mentionthis at all yet today is we
both invested in ourselves inthe form of learning, education
and training.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
Very much so we're just talking about that earlier,
we were just talking about it.
I spent a lot of money takingclasses to learn.
If I didn't know something, Iwould take a class, I would open
a book, I would have a read,and maybe not so much, and time
time oh I mean I don't know.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
You know, when you're your resource of time, your
hours are weird or limited.
I would watch classes online atnight after the kids went to
bed.
So like if you're, one of thebeautiful things now is we have
podcasts and you have onlinecourses, and like the company
we're with has a whole hugeonline training library so you
could literally, you know, bewith your kids during the day,
(48:38):
have a sitter for your showingsand your appointments, and then
I mean you sleep when you sleep,but you could go online and
learn every single night, and Idid that a lot in the beginning
too, like I would just, I'm aconsummate finder of information
and learning, and that's how Ibecome confident in something.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
I know.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
I could be successful at something if I'm confident
in it, and I become confident init when I learn about it and
know it, and the more you know,the more confident you show up,
as so I think training is reallyimportant, and I'm going to add
a caveat to that.
Like there's all these gurusout there, right?
So when?
you're starting a business andlike whether it's anything like
even with this podcast, right?
(49:13):
So I'm like, well, how am Igoing to start a podcast?
Like, I know Kim and I havestuff we want to share with the
world.
I know we have good, valuableinformation where we can make an
impact, to make a differencewith people by hearing from us.
But what about the logistics ofit all?
Like, how do you get thetechnology set up?
Where do you publish it?
Do you just take a video andyou post it online?
Like, what do you do?
So I had to learn.
I took, I took an online class.
(49:35):
But you know, just likeanything else now with social
media, when you talk aboutsomething or you do something,
then all of a sudden you getflooded with ads for it, right?
So now all these gurus andexperts are like how?
do I know that this person's anygood from that person and this
person from that person.
So I think, whatever kind ofbusiness it is let's say you're
getting into real estate andthey tell you, hire a coach,
(49:56):
hire a coach, hire a coach makesure that that coach or that
person that's training you hasactually done it before, because
I've been dumped into classeswith people and I'm like this
sounds good and then when I goback and research I'm like this
person's never sold more thanfour houses a year.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
It is just infuriating and you know I'll be
up in like what wait whathappened?
Speaker 1 (50:18):
who, huh, you're gonna tell me how to build a
listing based successfulbusiness and you've only taken
more than three listings a year.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
I don't think so.
A year, a year yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
So I think that you know, educating and investing in
yourself is important.
I say trust, but verify right,Like learn and do.
When you have successful peoplethat are teaching you, listen
and implement what they'reteaching you, but also make sure
that they've actually done itbefore themselves.
At least for me for 100.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
I can't listen to somebody and they've sold three
houses, or they're going toteach me how to get clients when
they're not doing that as well.
They've never done it.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
It's funny because you talked about your buddy, who
we love to, and he's a veryhighly successful agent and I
will take things that he's done.
If I want to know how to getbetter at listing, I'm going to
listen to his videos and watchhis listen his podcast and watch
his videos and everything, butwhen it comes to work-life
balance, I'm not going to takeadvice from him on work-life
balance.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
I love him right, right, like in that regard,
maybe I'll talk to his dad,right, but what?
Speaker 1 (51:23):
But what I'm saying is like, if you're going to,
model after someone, or you wantyour business to look a certain
way or you want it to show up acertain way.
Verify that they've achieved ordone some of the things that
you're looking to do, and itmight be just until you get to
this point, and then you get tothat point and then you find
someone else.
Like we talked about peoplecoming to your life for a season
or for a reason right, sothey're going to come in and out
(51:45):
so you might have a coach or atrainer that gets you to this
level.
But once you're at that samelevel, you might be ready for
the next person, for the nextlevel, and I think that's super
important because you yeah, I'vedone that plenty.
So let's see, we talked aboutknowing your resources.
We talked about your self-gr.
Grace yeah, forgiveness andgrace, so important You're not
(52:05):
negotiables.
Yeah, making sure that thoseare set up.
We talked about your circle,yeah, and we talked about I just
want to say I love our circle.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
I do, I love our circle.
It's been.
I mean, when did I come back?
Six, eight months ago, and mybusiness has, you know, blew up
you know what?
Speaker 1 (52:27):
I think we vibe off of each other really well.
Sure do, Kristen.
You me Like the people in our.
When you're around good energythat's contagious and it lifts
you up Even when you're having abad day, Like there's some days
I'm like ugh.
And then I'm around certainpeople and I'm like, yes, this
is what I needed.
(52:47):
For sure it's good, it is great, and more people come into it,
which I love, Like really greatpeople that have Good people and
see you know the other thing.
I love seeing some of the peoplethat are coming in, the agents.
That are like starting to hittheir groove and watching them
succeed.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
Oh my gosh, that just brings me so much joy.
And it really has done well,you know, they really it'll be
good, I like being that mama hensometimes.
I feel like it feeds my soul.
It does.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
Like watching them and pouring into them and
watching them grow, like mygreatest accomplishment in the
next couple of years is going tobe when they all just blow us
you and I out of the way in thewater in terms of success and
sales and still balancing thatwork-life balance, and it makes
for me, I look and I'm like, yay, did you see what she did?
Speaker 2 (53:31):
or, oh my god, did you see what they did?
Speaker 1 (53:33):
so for me it's yeah, it's a circle well, if you like
what you're hearing, subscribe,like and um follow us.
We're on uh, spotify,iheartradio music YouTube oh
yeah, youtube Do Epic ShitPodcast.
Let's see what we've got foryou coming up.
So let's see Next topics thatwe have.
(53:56):
We're going to talk about, inno particular order whatsoever,
the art of saying no andprotecting your time oh, that's
a good one.
Managing the, the art of sayingno and protecting your time oh,
that's a good one.
Managing the highs and lows ofentrepreneur life, becoming a
leader, lessons learned that's agreat one.
Uh.
Building a team what works andwhat doesn't ouch uh.
Real estate tips and tricks forsuccess that's a good one and
(54:18):
investing 101.
Oh, I love that.
Building wealth while running abusiness, yeah, that's a good
one, um we all should be doingthat one and we've, I've, we've,
I've had some peaks and valleysin that like where I've built
some really amazing things andthen lost it all and build it
back and lost it all again andbuild it back again.
So that's fun.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
That'd be good.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
So we are so grateful for you for tuning in.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
Thank you.
gosh, I'm gonna start crying.
I think, well, I didn't mean toget that emotional that early
on we are lit today.
Oh welcome, hey.
So uh welcome, you are livewith us and uh do epic shit.
The podcast, real talk, realestate, real life this is real
(00:24):
life, for sure.
My name is Colleen Baczynski.
I'm a real estate agent, realestate broker, entrepreneur, mom
, grandma and business woman,and this is my associate.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'm Kim Neal and I'm all of that, except for grandma.
No grandma, yet Awesome.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Well, you're pretty awesome and you.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
You're an investor too.
Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
So welcome to our second episode.
So in true transparency Ialmost said tampon, what the
heck In true transparency.
I have to start out by sayingthis is episode two, but this is
like take three episode two, itis take three.
Because we decided that we weregoing to undertake this on our
(01:09):
own, we're like, yeah, we needto record our next episode, we
need to be on time and have ourweeks drop.
You know, weekly on the rightday and time, and you know all
that perfectionist shit that Italked about, that I do all the
time, and so Kristen wasn'tavailable.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Or we didn't ask her, we just improvised.
I don't know what happened, whywe didn't have you here that
day.
It was an off week, busy.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So we recorded a really good episode, I think,
only To find out it didn'trecord.
Yeah, it didn't.
Yeah, I thought we did.
I thought I pressed the rightbuttons.
I didn't have any of the rightbuttons pressed.
I didn't have anything pluggedin where it needed to be to work
(01:51):
in progress.
Yeah, so we are two very middleaged women uh figuring out how
to do a podcast on our own.
So we appreciate that you'retaking the time to tune in and
be with us.
Um, so, big shout out toKristen DeFiore, who's um
handling all of our video andtechnical stuff on the back end
with us here like right now, andthen also to Nolan, who is our
editor and sound guy and helpedus with all of our equipment.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
He did a good job.
I mean, he was awesome, hereally did a good job.
You both did yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I mean.
So I like to give credit wherecredit's due, so I think that's
important.
So we are at week two, episodetwo, and let me just put my
glasses on so I can see what.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I'm talking about.
How did you think week one went?
I thought it was good, Ithought it was great.
I mean, we've had.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I mean for just.
We've had a lot of good,positive feedback, so I'm really
happy with it me too, I'm I'mexcited uh, we told some good
stories, we did yeah, we've gota lot more to share a lot to
share.
Drop some good nuggets.
What was your favorite nuggetwe dropped the last time?
I think, about just doing itlike, just go for it, do it yeah
(02:56):
, I hope we've encouraged someof you to just go out and take
the leap and and do the thingthat you intend to do.
I think I said that the lasttime.
Do the thing thing, takeadvantage of the opportunity, go
for it, just do it Never regretthe opportunities you took, if
you learned something or if youachieved something, and that's
the best thing.
It's like there's only two waysto go.
(03:16):
You're either gonna grow, you'regonna win or you're gonna learn
, and there's nothing wrong withany of those things.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, absolutely three well.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I think that's a perfect segue into what we're
going to talk about this week,which is how to start a business
while raising kids.
That's a good one.
So I've been thinking aboutthis a lot actually, and I
thought you know.
Here's me I'm super like,regimented and all about like we
got to stay on track and we gotto follow the agenda and Kim's
(03:45):
like yeah, whatever, we'll justtalk about whatever.
um, and I realized that the goldcomes from the real
authenticity of what we're doingand how the whatever.
So I'm going to try to notfollow my agenda too much today,
but I still want to give youguys actionable items.
We're going to share the good,the bad and the ugly.
(04:07):
So I won't say that you know,obviously we both have built
successful businesses severalsuccessful businesses over the
years while raising kids, and Iwon't say that we did everything
right.
We did a lot of stuff wrong.
So hopefully you can learn fromthe things that we did wrong
and laugh at them as well, andthen also learn from the things
(04:30):
we did right.
So, I'm going to share somethings we did right but also
like hey what did you do thatyou'd like?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
oh gosh, I don't do that again.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Like I can think of some things in hindsight.
So let's just start with thefirst question I have how did
starting a business change yourrole as a parent, Kim?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, for starters, I went from a stay-at-home mom to
jumping and feet first or headfirst or whatever you want to
call it, and dove into the deepend.
I did, I really did.
And I think, as I thought aboutthis a lot too, when you're a
stay-at-home mom, it is such animportant role, or stay-at-home
parent period, such an importantrole, and sometimes you feel
(05:13):
guilty pulling away from that.
So you know, I, while I was astay-at-home mom, I was like, oh
, I really want to be in theworkforce.
All my friends were on theworkforce, plus had families.
I was blessed enough at thatpoint to be able to stay home.
And I say blessed because not alot of people could do that
(05:36):
back then and they can't do itnow.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Oh, yeah, now I mean, there's no way.
There's very few families thatcan make it absolutely very few
so I was blessed at the time.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
But while I was in it I was like what do I want to do
?
I'm antsy, I want to go back towork, but is it worth?
I think you struggle, we allstruggle.
If I go back to work, how muchis daycare going to be?
Will I be present and around toattend you?
You know Valentine's Dayparties and birthday parties,
(06:07):
and your kids are only littleones.
Yeah, it goes by fast.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
It does Really fast.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
So for me I was what do I do?
What do I do?
Real estate was a great seguefor me to get into because my
husband was a carpenter and wewere starting to invest and
starting to flip and starting todo that.
So it was just normal ornatural for us to, just for me
(06:32):
to do that and help him.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, I think I come from the opposite end of that is
I didn't have a choice, like Ihad to work.
So I mean I shared a little bitabout this last week that I was
going through a real toughdivorce.
I had been in an abusiverelationship.
My ex-husband, who's nowdeceased, had addiction issues
and there was abuse, and it wasa situation where I had to get
(06:56):
out of the relationship, not formy, not just for my own benefit
or my own safety, but also Isaw this is not the example I
want for my kids.
Yeah, and um had to reallyquickly do that and gosh, I'm
gonna start crying, I think.
Wow.
I didn't that emotional, thatearly on.
I think that real estate for meprobably saved my life and
(07:21):
changed the trajectory for mykids forever.
Agree, nowed Now.
Did I always make the rightchoices as I was meandering
through that?
No, absolutely not.
I think there were plenty oftimes where I sacrificed time
with my kids or supervision withmy kids that I probably
shouldn't have.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I will agree with that, that I needed to be there
with them, I think businesswomen in general, do we have a?
That's difficult?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
But I also think that sometimes you just have to,
like you, you have to make.
I think that's the number onelesson probably is you have to
make tough choices and you haveto be willing to make sacrifices
if you're going to start abusiness and have kids and, um,
you know, I look at theinfluencers today on like TikTok
and Instagram and everything.
I thought what a greatopportunity for those people to
(08:04):
be able to be present with theirkids and still start a business
.
And yet not all of us can do aTikTok business or an influencer
.
But like there's only so muchof that to go around, I think I
mean.
Maybe I'm wrong, but real estatedid give me an opportunity and
maybe I could have scaled itback a little bit as I was
building and growing all thebusinesses to the point where I
could have scaled it back alittle bit as I was building and
(08:24):
growing all the businesses tothe point where I could have
been a little bit more present.
But I still feel like I got todo a lot of really cool things
with my kids over the years andwe got to have a lot of
experiences and opportunitiesthat maybe we wouldn't have if I
hadn't got into real estate andbuilt this business and built
the businesses now, when I wasbuilding other people's
companies.
I think that's where it whereit went sideways, maybe in terms
(08:47):
of the amount of time that Ispent helping other people grow
their business instead ofinvesting in mine.
And in hindsight, like we say,hindsight's 20, 20.
Right, so I look back like whenI was first building my real
estate career business, my salesbusiness and my own
entrepreneurial business.
I think I did a pretty good joband we'll talk about, like,
(09:09):
what resources we had and whatwe did of balancing both of
those.
I think for me, where it went alittle bit sideways is the
shiny, flashy objects of growingor climbing this corporate
ladder within this organizationI was a part of that just sucked
the life out of me.
It did suck the life you were.
(09:29):
I mean, I remember being in thatoffice till 2, 3 in the morning
, getting our numbers in on timeso that we could, you know,
look good in the corporate eyes.
And now that I'm back in thesales side of things and I'm not
affiliated with the corporate,I'm loving, loving it, we do
have fun.
So, yeah, so I think you knowand you won't go back and change
anything, because it made youwho you are and where you are
(09:51):
today.
I mean, are there some thingsthat I wish maybe went a little
bit differently overall?
But, like even you know,obviously I lost my daughter.
She's not here today and that'sa really, really, really hard
thing, right?
But I also know that her and Ihad some amazing trips together
and experiences together and youknow, we went places and we did
(10:13):
things together and I know thatthose things would not have
happened if I hadn't been my ownboss and hadn't been in this
business, been in real estateand had become an entrepreneur.
So sorry to get real heavy onyou guys fast, but I just think
that game, when you make thatdecision, there are some
sacrifices, but also it cancreate an open doors to amazing
(10:38):
opportunities.
Like you know, I have mygrandson.
Now I'm raising my grandson.
I would not have been able tohave the freedom of time to be
able to take on a little, alittle kid, all over again,
little boy, if I hadn't had beenmy own business owner and been
my own business person and uh,so, yeah, so it doesn't open up
doors.
Yeah, for sure, opens up doorsso what are a couple um
(11:00):
resources?
I would say that you leaned onearly on as you were jumping
into this real estate businessand being a mom and you know
it's when you have kids you'relike figuring, figuring it all
out um, you know, I think uh,family I had at that time I had
my sister was helping me alittle bit.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I had a Actually it was my neighbor's daughter, so
she was 15 years old and shewould come over and watch the
kids just for a couple hours.
And I think you have to be Ihad to be, anyway, very
purposeful with my time.
So if I knew I had showings orI had to get something done, I
(11:45):
knew I had that time slotbetween 4 and 7.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Like you, have to be very purposeful.
For me it was so.
I had the neighbor girl, I hadmy sister, because the kids were
still little, yeah, and then ofcourse you know my husband
would come home and do what hecould do, but he worked
construction all day.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
He was pretty tired, yeah, so I mean working
construction out in the heat.
Yeah, eight, ten hours you'rewiped Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So you know to count on him.
A lot wasn't.
Even though he was home, hemight be sleeping.
I still had the neighbor girlwith the kids you know so those
were some of the resources thatI was able to tap into and you
get real creative, and I wasthinking about this when we
talked about it before Iactually at that time was
(12:35):
helping a client that happenedto be friends with me, and after
I got done, after they boughttheir house and moved in, she
was like you know, Kim, youalways have Donovan.
She's like you know, you coulddrop them off, I'll watch them.
So that, too, became a resourcefor me.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Well, Donovan was a regular at our office.
I mean, I loved when he came inand you, you do that.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
And that brings me to another good point.
I would sometimes, if I didn'thave anybody, I would throw him
in the car with a happy meal andyou know, I think that I don't
even know what his hand held.
I mean, we've burned through somany.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Well, I know when he would come in.
He would run right to Bart'soffice.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Bart would jack him up on candy, Sugar and poppy
candy donuts.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Play with him, run him around the why was gave him
nicknames?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
yeah just able to do work.
Take a member with the vendingmachines, oh yeah, and they
would just hear what do you wanton then, just so I could get a
half hour 40 minutes of workdone, yeah yeah, I mean think
about it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
That was back before we could stick a tablet in front
of a kid or something and notthat you always want to do that
now, but like we do have theconvenience of that, like if I
have to take Julian with mesomewhere or if I have an
appointment, or back then it was, you know, pj.
So I remember that my youngestPJ was diagnosed on the autism
spectrum and so he, thereweren't a lot of options.
(14:00):
So, you know, I didn't havefame, my mom wasn't local, my
mom was out of state.
I had an aunt that would helpme, um, bart's mom.
You remember, I got into thisand Bart and I are just dating.
So this lady's the mom of myboyfriend, right?
But I mean, god bless her soul.
What a nice, sweet lady.
I mean tough as nails and meanas hell, but also a heart of
gold, right.
(14:20):
Like she had a mouth like atruck driver.
Bart always teases, that'swhere he learned to swear.
But she would, you know, shedidn't drive, she lived in the
city.
We'd go to the city and pickher up and she'd come over and
stay for a couple of days andthen she would help with the
kids and she whipped him intoshape.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Oh, she was a drill sergeant with those kids.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
And they absolutely adored her and then, obviously,
she became my mother-in-law whenwe got married.
But that was one of myresources.
I had another um realtor that Iworked with who, um, you know,
knew I was struggling, trying tofigure out how to, when, what
was I going to scheduleappointments, what I was doing?
And she offered her daughter.
She's like, oh, my daughter canbabysit and so like.
(15:00):
I think, uh, being creative andtaking stock of your resources
is really important to figureout what alternatives there are.
I remember taking PJ onshowings with me as well, and he
would walk in and he'd be likeoh, your couch can go right here
and you could put your tableover there, and the clients
liked that.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I was just going to stop and say so.
I feel like you.
When you do that andincorporate your kids and your
family, you become relatable.
You become a real person.
This is just a quick story here.
I was on the phone with anolder gentleman two days ago who
had called me.
I said, oh my God, I can't talkright now.
(15:39):
I just had a root canal.
He said, oh well, kim, I didn'tknow we were on that kind of
level.
But okay, call me when you feelbetter.
And I so I said great, but Ididn't do that for sympathy or
like, oh, I did it like, hey, Ican't talk right now.
I want to answer your call.
(16:02):
You're important to, but I justhad a root canal.
Can I call you back?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Well, and I think I appreciate that Like it shows
the work ethic and whatsomeone's trying to do to make
it.
Like I appreciate being able tosupport small businesses, like
if I see a business and I gointo like a little store in the
strip center and it's a littleboutique or a shop or whatever
(16:27):
and they've got their kidsbehind the counter sitting there
nicely playing with their toysor the Legos or whatever, like.
I respect that because thehustle is real.
The hustle is real.
Like you know, it takes work toget a small business off the
ground.
I think that's one of the mythsis out.
There's like oh, I'm gonna geta real estate, it's gonna be so
easier, I'm gonna start thisbusiness real estate, it's going
to be so easy.
Or I'm going to start thisbusiness, it's going to be so
easy.
Like you've got to put a lot ofhours in on the front end to
(16:48):
get things going off the ground.
So how to start a business whenyou have kids?
Be ready to haul them aroundwith you.
Like they're going to go withyou, but they're going to see it
because I think kids don't dowhat you say, they do what you
(17:08):
do and they are.
You are role modeling for themevery minute of every day in
your life, in what you do.
All right, and you know my kidsall work hard.
I appreciate them, I love themand you know they're watching us
, they watched us and nowthey're grown and doing it all
over again.
I feel I kind of feel lucky insome regards that I get to do it
all over again with Julie.
I mean I'm tired Don't get mewrong Like grandma's raising a
(17:29):
little guy.
Well, he's 10, 10 years oldtoday.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
That's why we have kids when we're young because we
can't deal.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
But I do appreciate the opportunity to have been
able to have learned from thefirst time around and say, oh,
I'm not going to do that againand I will say one of the things
that I learned is to givemyself grace.
And I would say for you guystoo, give yourself grace, don't
sweat all the small stuff.
like don't pressure, likethere's so many things you can
(17:57):
beat yourself up at and worryabout and freak out about and
just take a step back and take abreath and give yourself some
grace.
I think you're not gonna beable to be at all things all the
time and they'll be yourclients, the people you work
with.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
They understand, they get.
I think that was it's hard tolike.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
I really wanna do that and I wanna be 24, seven
and I wanna be, but you say that, kim, and I'm gonna call you
out right now for a minute,because you are one.
People don't see what you, whatI see behind the scenes because
you are hustling on the weekend.
We've been at companies beforewhere they're like oh, you can
(18:38):
build a business and you couldwork nine to five, and that's
bullshit total.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Bullshit.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
I call bullshit.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I call bullshit.
I called it when I would listento him and I would say who, and
though Right, because I feellike in our industry we work
when the norm is off.
If they're working 9 to 5Monday through Friday, I'm
working 5 tonight.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I see you every work weekend and not every weekend.
Like you take time off, likeyou go to the spa and you get it
.
I'm like where you got, likeI'm getting a massage, like you,
you, you take care of yourselftoo but I know that there's some
Saturdays where I talk to you,where you're out with five
different buyers.
You start at nine o'clock in themorning.
You have strolling in at seveno'clock at night sending boop,
(19:26):
sending me pictures of your.
Now in your pajamas I have thecovers with the TV, like I'm
pooped.
But I think at different stagesin your business you're going
to have to put in the hustle,like we're pushing really hard
for some big goals this yearbecause we want to get some
momentum and kind of be able tothen step back.
But like, even when you'refirst starting your business,
(19:48):
it's those hours and that effortthat you put in the beginning
that makes a difference.
Now I can remember fallingasleep with the computer on my
lap.
Now, if we go back to when Ifirst started, we didn't even
have laptops then I don't thinkI mean maybe they were invented,
I just didn't have one.
But MLS was on, like the hardcopy computers in the office and
you know there was only likethree disks for the office.
(20:08):
I mean, I started right afterthey got out of the books, at
least coming in with the booksgoing to hard yeah.
So we had them.
Yeah, those silly little discs.
And so I remember going back tothe office at night after I put
the kids to bed and saying, hey, bart, can you watch the kids?
I gotta go it.
He's like you're going to theoffice at 10 o'clock at night.
I'm like, well, yeah, I need tolook this up, I need to do this
(20:29):
, and so don't get me wrong,you'll have to put in the hours,
but the benefits and thefreedom and and the things that
you get out of it are so soworth it.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You bet I'm just laughing because there's, yeah,
there's some.
I mean, it is not for thefaint-hearted.
No, you have to have or learnto put on that coat or thick
shell.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Well, yeah, you definitely have to grow some
thick skin.
I think tenacity is important.
Resilience, but also keeping inmind to give yourself grace and
forgiveness.
So all those things what aboutmom guilt?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
talk about that.
Yeah, you know, you cannot nothave it, at least a little bit.
There are some I mean I missedprobably, I would even say,
because now that I'm, you know,head first again into you, know,
I kind of I mean COVID came, Ikind of dropped back a little
bit and now I'm full throttleagain and I would say in the
(21:27):
past year, two years, I've evenmissed family parties and you do
feel bad, you do have that momguilt.
You know there's a lot of timeslike this is just not even a
question for me in my house.
I have to have dinner, eventhough my sons are grown and my
one's a teenager you're like thecrock pot queen, aren't you?
I am.
(21:47):
That's what I did today.
I was telling Kristen I walk, Ipulled out my can opener.
I was telling Kristen, I pulledout my can opener, I was making
homemade spaghetti sauce,getting it all ready and dropped
it.
And I could have just shut itoff, put it in the fridge and
said I'll do it tomorrow.
But I'm like nope, the kidscome home from work, Whatever,
Everybody's hungry and thatcomes from a long period of time
(22:12):
where I didn't have dinner andfelt guilty and felt bad.
You know, these guys I mean Ihave all boys, I have three boys
.
They're hungry, they want Boyscan eat.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
They can eat Kristen you know your boys yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
For me it's a no-brainer.
I have to have dinner.
So I literally dropped it,broke can opener and was at
Target at 8.45 this morning tobuy a can opener to come home to
make sure dinner was done.
Am I always there?
Speaker 1 (22:39):
No, Well, I think, though, that you bring up a
point of you know knowing whatyour non-negotiables are, right.
So for me, my non-negotiables,so dinner is not, I don't know.
For me it's not as big of adeal.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
But you don't have all the boys at home.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
They're not home now, but even when they were.
Every single one of my kids arephenomenal cooks, phenomenal
and I think it's because theylearn.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah, now, it's not that I don't.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I'm a good cook, like I can cook really well.
Yeah, you are.
I can cook and bake, which somepeople have one or the other.
I can do both.
I can and bake.
I'm a phenomenal cook.
Bart will attest to that.
He says it's how he put on somuch weight, but you know that's
a topic for another day.
But all my kids know how tocook really, really well, like
at school.
(23:23):
My Kyle when he was at lawschool he had two girls that
were roommates that they, youknow it was like three's company
.
They didn't cook, he cooked, hecooked for all of them.
I mean he makes homemadesouffle and cheesecakes For my
birthday he made me homemadeeggs benedict.
(23:43):
He knows how to make hollandaisesauce.
He's good.
So for me it was a little bitdifferent.
But my non-negotiable,particularly right now, is
soccer for Julia.
That's a non-negotiable.
Particularly right now issoccer for Julia like that's a
non-negotiable.
Every Monday and Wednesdaynight we have soccer practice
and Wednesday night is a longass night because I go, I work
all day.
I'm home for him from afterschool.
(24:05):
We have to have a snack, gethim dressed, get him ready.
It's 30 minutes to get to thesoccer um, because it's indoor
right now, because winter inChicago, so it's 30 minutes to
get to the soccer field.
He has goalkeeper, not goaliepractice, I learned because
goalie is hockey goalkeeper issoccer, I'm just learning this
stuff, even though Alyssa playedsoccer, I didn't know it, and
she was a goalkeeper too, butanyway.
(24:25):
So he has goalkeeper practicefor an hour.
Then he has an hour break but wecan't drive home and go back
because it's 30 minutes thereand 30 minutes back.
There's no point.
So then we sit there for anhour, then he goes into regular
team practice and then anotherhalf hour to get home.
So we're there four hours.
It's a big long night so for meno one else is going to.
You know, you can ask someone torun your kid here or run your
kid there, but no one else isgoing to do that do, and I I
(24:52):
asked bart to do it once, but Iknow bart doesn't have the
patience that I do either, soand he didn't he's not going to
sit there and flip open acomputer and I'm working and
sending emails to clients.
I'm fortunate that the facilityhas like a lounge where there's
wi-fi.
If they didn't, I'd be usingthe wi-fi in my car or whatever.
Um, but you know, those are mynon-negotiables, and so I I
(25:12):
think for you, dinner is anon-negotiable.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
It is so.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I think, as a parent mom, if we're speaking to the
women, but parents, if we'respeaking to decide what your
non-negotiables are and thenbuild around that and know that
you're going to have to makesome sacrifices, give and take,
like everything, can't be anon-negotiable.
Pick and choose what they are.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Now that you're saying that, I wish I would have
done that.
I can do that now because I'm10, 15 years into the business.
If somebody would have told methat early on, maybe things
would have been so chaotic in mylife, because they became very
chaotic, I mean even down to myrelationship with my husband,
yeah, you know.
(25:50):
So that's a really good topicthat we're talking about.
A really good, you know thingto touch on is non-negotiables.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah, so I just think that choosing what they are is
important and then givingyourself grace around all the
other things, Like we miss a lotof school events and no offense
to the school, but some ofthose school after school.
Like we did the trunk or treatthis past year.
It was crazy.
I'm like we went through allthat hassle for this.
It was a complete chaos,nightmare, and he didn't even
(26:18):
have that much fun.
He liked the one at the churchway better.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
We used to go to the church, one every year.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And I'm not trying to knock the school or anything.
I know they do their best inthe resources and the limits
that they have.
But I'm saying like so justbecause, like all the other kids
are going to it when we went toit last year and it's done a
couple of the after school, likeevening things there's just too
many kids running around andthere's not enough games for,
like the field night or whatever.
I'd rather take him tosomething else that he's going
to enjoy more.
So like give and take, likelearning what ones are good and
(26:47):
what are not, and dinner is agreat one.
Like dinner is a great one,like if it's family dinner then
it's family dinner.
But also knowing like I won'tmiss soccer, so Saturday morning
soccer games, I can't do openhouse on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I've got to give up.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Sunday, If you're not doing open house and I know
there's plenty of people who say, oh, I don't do open houses,
they don't work.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
I don't Bullshit.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Absolutely, I'm calling bullshit.
Because I mean Katie and I didan open house this week and we
had 75 people through.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Me and Kristen did one Saturday, which you have
like 40, 50?
, yeah, 45 people, yep, and atleast three listing
opportunities.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
And didn't you get multiple offers on the property?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
We did.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, katie, she got four offers.
So it works if it's done theright way, and so it's an
integral part of our businessfor our clients.
And if you're not willing toprovide the integral part of
what it takes to service thatclient, then maybe you're not in
the right business and I evendid my own email blast.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I'm proud of you.
You know it's funny.
You pulled it up on the board.
It goes, kim, you're number two.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
You can set the set, oh yeah we have the leaderboard
of all the activities we do andI thought oh yeah, because.
I sent out my own email blast.
Well, I mean, but that's whatit takes like doing the things
it takes.
So when you're starting yourown business, whatever kind of
business it is, know that thereare certain non-negotiables on
the business side, not just thepersonal side.
(28:09):
Like we're talking about dinnerand soccer, which are, um,
personal non-negotiables, butthere are some non-negotiables
on the business side.
And like my husband doesn'tlike to give up sundays, I watch
football on sundays.
I'm like, well, guess what?
I'm not watching football onsundays because we have a
commitment to our clients andthis is what it takes to get
(28:30):
things done.
And so what are yournon-negotiables on the business
side?
I think is just important andmaybe writing all those down and
laying it out in a plan infront of you so that you can see
it when you're starting intothis business like here are the
non-negotiables here.
Here are the non-negotiablesthere, and then everything else.
I'm gonna plan it, but I'm alsogonna give myself some grace
around all of it.
(28:50):
I agree that's a good it was,and I'm totally not following my
notes and going off the cuff,so I'm like a little nervous,
you guys.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Okay, so being transparent, right, so Kim's the
like, kind of like just I'm sofly by the seat of my pants and
I'm so like, structured.
I think that's why we do welltogether.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yeah, we feed off of each other pretty well, but I'm
trying to loosen up a little bit, so you are, you're doing well
today.
Thank you, you are thank you sowe talked about mom guilt,
talked about taking stock ofresources.
A couple other resources Iwanted to mention real quick
that I had thought of is thinkof, like some unconventional or
non-traditional resourcesbesides just either bringing
(29:30):
kids with you or having someonewatch the kids.
I think there's some time hackstoo, so for me, I wanted to
share this one.
I'm sure everybody knows theyuse Instacart or grocery order,
but that has been a godsend forme in terms of time saver and I
know we talk about inflation andprices of groceries being high
(29:52):
and you don't want to useInstacart to inflate them up,
but hack pro tip.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Dual.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Asco has their own app where you can order out
there and they'll deliver, oryou can drive up and pick it up
and you get all the sale prices.
You do.
I just did it.
It's great that's sweet, savesme hours every week hours.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I had another lady who was just we were two weeks
ago.
She's in the corporate worldand she said she hasn't been in
a grocery store in four years.
She just does it.
Orders that.
She said my time is spentbetter doing other, you know.
I'm not that grocery shoppingisn't important.
I don't want to, you know,minimize that.
But she said it's easier forher to go on the app order it,
(30:33):
she pulls right into the parkingspace.
I've got less um crap and lesslike that is true stuff too,
when I do it on the app, becauseI can go in the refrigerator
open up oh, I already have fourcontainers of sour cream.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I don't need a fifth one just because I'm in the
store.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
That's true, you know what that is true so for me
it's you know and not buying.
You know everybody's washingtheir weight, everybody's.
I mean.
You're on the grocery store.
I'm like, oh, some new mintoreo cookies, I'll try them you
know you laugh about the mint.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
We always have mint oreos.
I put them in.
Uh.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Julian's lunch but you are less likely to buy, less
impulse buying.
Yeah, less impulse buying soyou get a double benefit from it
.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
But I think looking for ways to leverage yourself in
that, because in the beginning,when you're first starting this
business, people say, oh, I'mgoing to get into real estate
because I'm going to havefreedom of time.
No, you're going to have to puttwice as much time to get it
going.
We talked about that last weekwhen we talked about going on to
our first sale.
Yeah, I work a lot.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
You work a lot, we work a lot.
Most real estate agents.
Look at my buddy, who Iabsolutely love.
Who's my guy from the loop?
Speaker 1 (31:46):
He's a maniac.
Now.
He wears his lack of days offlike a badge of honor, and I
respect him for that.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
That will never be me his lack of days off like a
badge of honor and I respect himfor that.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
That will never be me .
Well, I'm going to be abalanced person, and I you know.
So we'll set.
I'll sell 50 homes this yearinstead of 300 like him, which
is fine, but that's important,because no one can tell me what
my goals are going to be for meeither and I think and and I
might get some slack for thisit's a little different between
a man and a woman when you havea family.
(32:16):
I would agree.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I I used to argue with someone in particular at a
different company that would sayno, it doesn't, no, it doesn't,
no, it doesn't.
Yes, it does, because you'rehere from 7 in the morning until
3 30 in the afternoon.
But who got the kids up?
Who got their lunch packed?
Who got their clothes right?
(32:37):
Not there that there aren'tabsolutely that, absolutely at
large.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Normally, yes, the wife it just kind of naturally
gravitates to a lot of naturalinstinct it's nurtured inside of
us absolutely um, so for me Iwell, I used to argue about that
too, when I would hire people,when I had my different offices
and I had my different companies, and they would say well, the
person that you hire needs to behere at this time and do this
(33:03):
at this time, and we had to havea stand-up meeting at 8 am and
I said, well, they don't gettheir kids on the bus until 8.45
.
So we're going to have ourstand-up meeting at 9 15,
perfect like you can't do it at9 15, I'm like, why not if we're
truly supporting family firstand then business as a company
and as a business owner, and awoman business owner, yeah, I'm
gonna role model that in thepeople that I have working for
(33:24):
me and how I set up expectationsfor them.
But also, you know, you do thatwith your clients, right?
You're like okay, well, I, Ican start showing that this time
, and not that you wouldn't makea one-off exception, like
there's plenty of times wherewe've gone to like a class in
the city where we had to get inand you know, I can ask someone
to do it one day, but theday-to-day plus I want to be
(33:45):
there I want to give up and givehim a kiss on the head before I
send him out the door to get onthe bus and make sure that he
has his water bottle and hismint oreos and his snack and all
those things shoes and his yeah, absolutely, I do too, yeah so
I think I would agree with youso I think,
Speaker 2 (34:01):
those things are important, so but I think when
doing that with your clients andstuff or your business, any
business it's okay to start at 915.
It's okay to start at 9.15.
It's okay to start at 10o'clock, it's okay.
The clients and people, theydon't need to know exactly
what's going on in your schedule.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Well, also, most people aren't showing property
at 8 o'clock in the morning.
You know most sellers don'twant people walking through
their home at 8 o'clock in themorning.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
How about 9?
9 o'clock on a Saturday morning, okay?
Speaker 1 (34:31):
I mean I have an appointment this Sunday at 9.
Because?
I had to squeeze it in beforethe open house at noon.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I mean but that's what we do, so I'm going to have
a full day.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Sunday, like I was showing last Sunday too.
I had, because Saturday wassoccer.
We had soccer game Saturday, sothat was my non-negotiable.
So Sunday at showings at 9,open houses at noon, and when
open house starts at noon thatdoesn't mean I get there at noon
.
There's an hour and a half ofprep leading up to that because
we put 45 signs out like we'redoing a lot, like knowing what
your non-negotiables are, sothat window of opportunity there
(35:00):
, or a window of time is set.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
So I think and mostly with our open house.
You're there, so we end atthree.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
We're there till three, three, four, everything
down yeah, five signs and pullthem out of the snow and the ice
takes a little time.
I had a drill.
I bought a drill.
Things we do to get creativebut, again.
That's like being committed todoing what it takes in your
business.
So you brought up a.
You made me think of something.
So we're talking about likeyeah, you don't have to start
(35:28):
till nine or ten, but I think onthe flip side, it's also
important that when you'restarting this business, that you
understand that it takes timeto start a business more time
than to maintain a business likethe startup.
Every time I've started an offlike when we open a new office
because they own multipleoffices, or when I started my
wheels, like the time you put inis twice as much in the
(35:48):
beginning until you get it upoff the ground.
It's kind of like you know whenan airplane is taken off, it's
got like the thrusters andyou've got to give that, that
thrust to get it up off theground.
It's kind of like you know whenan airplane is taken off, it's
got to like the thrusters andyou've got to give that thrust
to get it off the ground.
The business is the same way andI think so many times I see new
agents that walk in andliterally have coached and
trained thousands of agents,right and leaders and whatever.
They walk in and they're like,oh, and then I see them say they
(36:10):
want one thing and then I seethem say they want one thing and
then the time that they'reactually putting in, and I don't
care if that time starts atnine o'clock in the morning,
seven o'clock in the morning orif it starts at ten o'clock in
the morning, but you're workinguntil eight o'clock at night
like the hours to me don'tmatter, like when they are.
It's if you're putting in thehours, because I see so many
people say I want to make sixfigures, I want to make a
(36:31):
hundred thousand dollars in realestate.
A hundred thousand dollars isnot that much in real estate.
To be honest with you guys likeyou should you could do that.
I don't want to say shouldbecause I don't want to be
preaching you could, absolutelyyou could do that easily and
then some, but not if you'reworking five or six hours a week
.
Show me any job in the world Imean, I'm sure there are some,
but the percentage is very, verysmall of where you can make six
(36:54):
figures and only work five orsix hours a week.
So you're gonna have to put thehours in it's when you put the
hours in, it's the creativitybehind it.
I think that it gives you thefreedom you have freedom of time
, not freedom of work.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
You don't get to not do the work yeah, I would say
because I'm just thinking like I, there's so many misconceptions
about real estate like, oh, youget to make your own schedule,
just like you said I.
You know, I only have to workfour or five hours.
I don't have to, you know, dothe things that are hard.
I mean it is people, I meanforever.
(37:28):
I didn't tell anybody the firstcouple years I was in real
estate what I was doing, becausethen people are watching and
they don't, you know, they don'tsee the struggle behind there
that you're on the phones,you're doing things that you
normally, you know don't have todo at a nine-to-five job.
I remember, I mean you got thephone call.
(37:49):
I was in an apartment complexhanding out flyers and the
apartment manager got mad andcalled my office.
So well, what the hell is shedoing?
Speaker 1 (37:57):
trying to take, you know she's trying to take our
business for her own businesswell, and I think that's the
thing with for your when you'restarting your own business, you
need to go out and find clientstoo right sometimes it's like,
oh, I'm just going to start thisbusiness and people will come.
If you like, if you build it,they will come no, no that's not
how it works.
You got to have a plan on how,first of all, taking stock of
(38:18):
your resources what are yougoing to do, how you're going to
have the time.
But then you have to have aplan, a good, solid business
plan.
What's that plan look like?
And not just how much you wantto do, but drilling it down to
how much you're going to do, how, where that business is going
to come from where those leadsare going to come from how are
you going to?
find the customers or theclients and then executing on
all of those things.
(38:38):
So you know, we talked, we'vetalked about open houses a lot
today, just because it justhappens to be something we're
talking about.
But you know the consumer sees,oh they held an open house for
three hours and they sold thehouse.
No, it doesn't work that way.
Like there's probably about 10to 12 hours of pre-work that
goes in before we host that, andprobably another 15 to 30 hours
(39:01):
of follow-up and post work withthose people before and then
now we're just getting to thepoint of writing a contract and,
you know, keeping the contracttogether and negotiating the
deal and then inspection andthen walkthrough and like all
the little things that happen.
So there's a lot of hours andI'm not complaining.
Real estate has been abeautiful, wonderful career for
(39:23):
me.
I just want people that arethinking about getting into it
or starting it whether it's thisbusiness or something else to
know that they have realisticexpectations and what's going to
be required of them in order toget into this.
And you can't do both be a goodmom and wife and raise a family
and have this.
It's just setting thoserealistic expectations up front,
(39:45):
setting your non-negotiables.
Give yourself grace when noneof them, when stuff happens,
because I, god knows, I fell onmy face a lot.
There were times where I maybeI should have been there for my
kids and I wasn't.
And there were clients that youknow.
I'm sorry that.
You know I screwed up on.
Like it happens it does.
I hope it happens less and lessnow because I have so much
(40:08):
experience behind me, but in thebeginning I probably did mess
some shit up Me too.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
I for sure did.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
No doubt I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Well, that's what I mean.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
I've learned to give myself grace, I've learned.
I think it is all a learningcurve.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah, I think in the beginning we beat ourselves up a
lot and I think as I get older,one of the things I've learned
is not to sweat the small stuffas much.
Which is hard for someone likeme who's such a perfectionist.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Well, and too, don't you think, as you're going
through and I think it's withany business you learn to deal
with what's being thrown at youa little bit better?
Like I can deal with a lot more?
Well, you see, like Kim, how doyou not just blow up?
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Because I think Well, you definitely have more
patience.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
When it comes to that talking to clients, I'm like
why don't they get it?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Yeah, like I feel like I'm at a point where I'm
like it's okay, we'll handle it.
We got it.
Yeah, don't worry about it.
And that goes along with thegive yourself grace, um, and
getting back to that, it's.
My point was, I feel like thethe more you do it, the more
experience you get, the more youare able to tolerate and work
(41:22):
through, and do I?
Speaker 1 (41:23):
I would agree with you.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yeah, there's um.
I see agents not even our own,like you know that.
Oh my god, oh my god.
It's like oh wait, no, no,breathe.
Yeah, we, we got this, we cando this.
Let's walk through this.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Well, I think life has given me more tolerance and
patience in that, just becauseof, like I mentioned, my
youngest son's on the autismspectrum and the things, like, I
think I learned a lot ofpatience over the years just
from helping raise, raising himand he's phenomenal now.
But I mean there were timeswhere, like, the school called
and they'd cart him off in anambulance and, like you, you had
(41:58):
to like just say sorry, clients, I'm missing the appointment,
like I don't want to tell you Isomeone else will help you.
Well, I think that's anotheractually good point in terms of
when you're starting yourbusiness is how important is the
circle, or the tribe that yousurround yourself with?
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
We've got a little bit of time.
I love this one.
Yeah, it's honestly, and thisis no lie, it is absolutely 100%
whether it will make or breakyou.
100%, whether it will make orbreak you.
I've been, you know, with acore group of people since I
started, you know, and then youfall off and your business kind
of goes along with that, andthen you come back together and
(42:35):
then you fall off and really I'mat a point in my career now it
is absolutely 100% who Isurround myself.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Well, I mean, they always say that you tend to take
on the characteristics or riseto the level of the five people
that you surround yourself withthe most.
But I also think that's notjust from a financial
perspective.
I think that's from anintegrity perspective, I think
it's from a kindness perspective, I think it's from a trust a
trust.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Yeah, that's trust.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
And I know and I love the like.
It took a long time because Iused to give everybody the
benefit of the doubt.
I know you're smiling right andI've gotten burned more times
than I'd like to admit Where's.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Ubaldo.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
Where's Bart I was going to?
Yeah, so they're very skeptical, whereas I'm very trusting and
I feel like I've led a lot ofpeople into my circle previously
that maybe I shouldn't havetrusted and that, you know, stab
me in the back.
I'm just going to say it.
You know, I got burned a fewtimes, more than a few times, by
people that I really treatedlike family, like you know, when
(43:40):
you're in the circle with usyou're in the circle.
Like you get it all.
I mean, you're gonna, you'reprobably gonna hear some things
you don't want to hear, like tmi, a lot, right, too much
information.
But we also, you know, wouldlay down for each other and do
anything for each other.
So, like, and so I know that,like, if I have a client and I
can't make it somewhere and I'mlike, oh my gosh, I can't do
(44:02):
this, I could call any one ofthe people in our group, our
surrounded group, and they'll goand help me out.
And not because, like, they'regonna get paid or I'm gonna have
to give them half mytransaction or whatever.
Just now, if they do a lot ofwork, I'm gonna do what's right
and what's fair.
And, like you know what,kristen, you did all that work
with that client.
You know, here I'm gonna splitit with her, I'm gonna pay you a
referral or whatever.
(44:22):
But also in a pinch, like ifyou're out of town or whatever,
like hey, this person needs togo out, can you go?
Show them one house, absolutely, corey will run and do it, or
whoever.
So I think that that circle ofpeople that you surround
yourself with when your computerfreaks out and you're like you
pulled up right like a virusattacked me.
What did you click on?
I didn't click on anything.
(44:42):
I swear no right but thosepeople that you surround
yourself with, are they peoplethat you want to be in business
with?
And I think I've learned thatthe hard way and you have as
well.
I mean you bounced around to acouple different places because
you know we had the bandtogether and then the band broke
up and then we had part of theband back together because other
people we didn't want back inthe band.
(45:03):
And so I think those areimportant things too.
So, just to recap some of thethings that we talked about
taking stock of your resources,who you have for help,
non-traditional ways ofleveraging or outsourcing,
giving yourself grace, settingyour non-negotiables up and
knowing who you have in yourcircle For sure I think those
(45:23):
are all really really good ones.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
They are so if you could go back and do it all over
again, knowing what you wouldknow now, what's one thing that
you would make sure to get right, or tell your younger self, or
whatever honestly the circle issuper important to me because if
you have that core circle orthat, they have a tendency to
tell you well, they're notafraid to call you out, and
(45:47):
you're right either and like kim, you need to go home.
Yeah, go home.
You know, or you're not doingthat right, or I will help you.
Or like they will tell you it'sa trust thing.
Like who do I trust to that?
Speaker 1 (46:03):
that would tell me the truth well, I mean, I had
that conversation with somebodyin our circle the other day.
I'm like hey, I'm telling youthis because I care about you
what's wrong with you?
You're not yourself.
Something's off, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
I'm, what are you?
Speaker 1 (46:14):
gonna do to get your ass not in gear?
Speaker 2 (46:17):
or go home and they that that person.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
I'm gonna call anybody out by name.
They texted me later.
It was like thank you for that.
I appreciate I needed that nowif we weren't in that group that
you know that environmenttogether, somebody else might
not say anything and then youknow six months from now that
person's out of the business andthey're struggling and their
life's falling apart.
You wonder why, like we need tobe, but also I built enough
(46:39):
deposits in trust with thatperson that I'm allowed to have
that conversation like you know.
You know you could say oh, youhave a coach and they'll help
you do that.
But you know I'm not listeningto someone who I don't think or
I don't believe cares aboutwhat's truly important to me,
like I, and having a coach isimportant and great I coached
for years and but that coach hasto build trust and build
(47:00):
deposits of trust with you thatyou know that they truly care
about you in order to be able tosay those things to you.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
It's a great point because you can hire 15 coaches
and you can say this I'm goingto start this coaching business
or I want to be a coach.
But if you don't have thevalidity behind, if you don't
have trust behind, if youhaven't proven, it means nothing
, zilch, it means nothing.
I mean there was a company Iwas, I was at and they wanted me
(47:32):
to listen to somebody who wasonly in the business a few years
.
What?
Maybe I should be the coach?
But no, I think you have thatvalidity behind.
You have to have proof behindit.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
Well, I'm glad that you bring that up, because
that's probably one more finalthing about when you're starting
this business.
When I think about what I, whatwe did to become successful
both of us and we didn't mentionthis at all yet today is we
both invested in ourselves inthe form of learning, education
and training.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
Very much so we're just talking about that earlier,
we were just talking about it.
I spent a lot of money takingclasses to learn.
If I didn't know something, Iwould take a class, I would open
a book, I would have a read,and maybe not so much, and time
time oh I mean I don't know.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
You know, when you're your resource of time, your
hours are weird or limited.
I would watch classes online atnight after the kids went to
bed.
So like if you're, one of thebeautiful things now is we have
podcasts and you have onlinecourses, and like the company
we're with has a whole hugeonline training library so you
could literally, you know, bewith your kids during the day,
(48:38):
have a sitter for your showingsand your appointments, and then
I mean you sleep when you sleep,but you could go online and
learn every single night, and Idid that a lot in the beginning
too, like I would just, I'm aconsummate finder of information
and learning, and that's how Ibecome confident in something.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
I know.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
I could be successful at something if I'm confident
in it, and I become confident init when I learn about it and
know it, and the more you know,the more confident you show up,
as so I think training is reallyimportant, and I'm going to add
a caveat to that.
Like there's all these gurusout there, right?
So when?
you're starting a business andlike whether it's anything like
even with this podcast, right?
(49:13):
So I'm like, well, how am Igoing to start a podcast?
Like, I know Kim and I havestuff we want to share with the
world.
I know we have good, valuableinformation where we can make an
impact, to make a differencewith people by hearing from us.
But what about the logistics ofit all?
Like, how do you get thetechnology set up?
Where do you publish it?
Do you just take a video andyou post it online?
Like, what do you do?
So I had to learn.
I took, I took an online class.
(49:35):
But you know, just likeanything else now with social
media, when you talk aboutsomething or you do something,
then all of a sudden you getflooded with ads for it, right?
So now all these gurus andexperts are like how?
do I know that this person's anygood from that person and this
person from that person.
So I think, whatever kind ofbusiness it is let's say you're
getting into real estate andthey tell you, hire a coach,
(49:56):
hire a coach, hire a coach makesure that that coach or that
person that's training you hasactually done it before, because
I've been dumped into classeswith people and I'm like this
sounds good and then when I goback and research I'm like this
person's never sold more thanfour houses a year.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
It is just infuriating and you know I'll be
up in like what wait whathappened?
Speaker 1 (50:18):
who, huh, you're gonna tell me how to build a
listing based successfulbusiness and you've only taken
more than three listings a year.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
I don't think so.
A year, a year yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
So I think that you know, educating and investing in
yourself is important.
I say trust, but verify right,Like learn and do.
When you have successful peoplethat are teaching you, listen
and implement what they'reteaching you, but also make sure
that they've actually done itbefore themselves.
At least for me for 100.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
I can't listen to somebody and they've sold three
houses, or they're going toteach me how to get clients when
they're not doing that as well.
They've never done it.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
It's funny because you talked about your buddy, who
we love to, and he's a veryhighly successful agent and I
will take things that he's done.
If I want to know how to getbetter at listing, I'm going to
listen to his videos and watchhis listen his podcast and watch
his videos and everything, butwhen it comes to work-life
balance, I'm not going to takeadvice from him on work-life
balance.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
I love him right, right, like in that regard,
maybe I'll talk to his dad,right, but what?
Speaker 1 (51:23):
But what I'm saying is like, if you're going to,
model after someone, or you wantyour business to look a certain
way or you want it to show up acertain way.
Verify that they've achieved ordone some of the things that
you're looking to do, and itmight be just until you get to
this point, and then you get tothat point and then you find
someone else.
Like we talked about peoplecoming to your life for a season
or for a reason right, sothey're going to come in and out
(51:45):
so you might have a coach or atrainer that gets you to this
level.
But once you're at that samelevel, you might be ready for
the next person, for the nextlevel, and I think that's super
important because you yeah, I'vedone that plenty.
So let's see, we talked aboutknowing your resources.
We talked about your self-gr.
Grace yeah, forgiveness andgrace, so important You're not
(52:05):
negotiables.
Yeah, making sure that thoseare set up.
We talked about your circle,yeah, and we talked about I just
want to say I love our circle.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
I do, I love our circle.
It's been.
I mean, when did I come back?
Six, eight months ago, and mybusiness has, you know, blew up
you know what?
Speaker 1 (52:27):
I think we vibe off of each other really well.
Sure do, Kristen.
You me Like the people in our.
When you're around good energythat's contagious and it lifts
you up Even when you're having abad day, Like there's some days
I'm like ugh.
And then I'm around certainpeople and I'm like, yes, this
is what I needed.
(52:47):
For sure it's good, it is great, and more people come into it,
which I love, Like really greatpeople that have Good people and
see you know the other thing.
I love seeing some of the peoplethat are coming in, the agents.
That are like starting to hittheir groove and watching them
succeed.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
Oh my gosh, that just brings me so much joy.
And it really has done well,you know, they really it'll be
good, I like being that mama hensometimes.
I feel like it feeds my soul.
It does.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
Like watching them and pouring into them and
watching them grow, like mygreatest accomplishment in the
next couple of years is going tobe when they all just blow us
you and I out of the way in thewater in terms of success and
sales and still balancing thatwork-life balance, and it makes
for me, I look and I'm like, yay, did you see what she did?
Speaker 2 (53:31):
or, oh my god, did you see what they did?
Speaker 1 (53:33):
so for me it's yeah, it's a circle well, if you like
what you're hearing, subscribe,like and um follow us.
We're on uh, spotify,iheartradio music YouTube oh
yeah, youtube Do Epic ShitPodcast.
Let's see what we've got foryou coming up.
So let's see Next topics thatwe have.
(53:56):
We're going to talk about, inno particular order whatsoever,
the art of saying no andprotecting your time oh, that's
a good one.
Managing the, the art of sayingno and protecting your time oh,
that's a good one.
Managing the highs and lows ofentrepreneur life, becoming a
leader, lessons learned that's agreat one.
Uh.
Building a team what works andwhat doesn't ouch uh.
Real estate tips and tricks forsuccess that's a good one and
(54:18):
investing 101.
Oh, I love that.
Building wealth while running abusiness, yeah, that's a good
one, um we all should be doingthat one and we've, I've, we've,
I've had some peaks and valleysin that like where I've built
some really amazing things andthen lost it all and build it
back and lost it all again andbuild it back again.
So that's fun.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
That'd be good.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
So we are so grateful for you for tuning in.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
Thank you.
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